The debacle surrounding Taiwan Broadcasting System (TBS) is getting more out of hand. After edging out TBS chairman Cheng Tung-liao (鄭同僚), the government then forced two excellent managers from office — former Public Television Services (PTS) president and chief executive Sylvia Feng (馮賢賢) and Chinese Television System (CTS) general manager Chen Jen-ran (陳正然). Worst of all, TBS remains under the control of the government.
The Public Television Act (公共電視法) clearly stipulates that PTS belongs to the public and that it should be independently and autonomously run, without any political intervention. However, the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has pulled all sorts of stunts to interfere with TBS, which includes PTS, CTS, Indigenous Television Service and Hakka Television Service.
First, it increased the number of board members, thus diluting the power of the original members, and mobilized biased legislators to the review committee, a blatant breach of the legal regulations that stipulate the board should be made up of disinterested community members.
Second, it used the legislature to freeze the PTS budget and come up with regulations stating that programs must be submitted for review and censorship before broadcasting. It also tried to force the management team to step down.
Until these actions can take effect, the authorities can amend related laws, greatly increase the number of board members and use human-wave attack methods to control the board.
Because of the highhanded methods used, the Government Information Office (GIO) was pulled up by the Control Yuan, but the administration has not stopped its attempts to take over the board, causing constant legal action by board members, the supervisory committee and the GIO, eventually also involving CTS. The main reasons the government failed to take over PTS is that it came up against an unusually determined chairperson, it underestimated the professional skills and determination of the supervisory committee and it used highhanded methods that caused a great deal of public indignation.
Nevertheless, the Ma administration remains hell-bent on forcing its way in and doing everything it can to get rid of those with dissenting opinion.
Control of the media is a reflection of the vicious nature of a one-party state. Two good examples are how the media was not deregulated as fast as the rules on forming political parties, and how the Chinese government continues to ban the public from establishing broadcast media.
After Ma came into power, his administration changed the national news agency, the Central News Agency, so it now gives preference to the KMT’s party-state. It also forced out the chairperson and the management team of Radio Taiwan International and used placement marketing to gain total control over the media. It has also planned to curtail the independence of the National Communication Commission.
The power struggles within TBS are just one example of how Ma’s party-state controls the media. Taiwan’s press freedom ratings by Freedom House and Reporters without Borders plummeted due to Ma’s party-state control, a sure sign of a deteriorating democracy. This deterioration was initiated by the authorities’ control of the media.
The public must stand up to stop these evil goings-on, especially with the review process for a new PTS chairperson just around the corner. We must expose those guilty of media manipulation. We cannot afford to sit around and watch as the press freedom we have worked so hard to achieve, for so many years, is taken away.
Lu Shih-hsiang is an adviser to the Taipei Times.
TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON
A failure by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to respond to Israel’s brilliant 12-day (June 12-23) bombing and special operations war against Iran, topped by US President Donald Trump’s ordering the June 21 bombing of Iranian deep underground nuclear weapons fuel processing sites, has been noted by some as demonstrating a profound lack of resolve, even “impotence,” by China. However, this would be a dangerous underestimation of CCP ambitions and its broader and more profound military response to the Trump Administration — a challenge that includes an acceleration of its strategies to assist nuclear proxy states, and developing a wide array
Eating at a breakfast shop the other day, I turned to an old man sitting at the table next to mine. “Hey, did you hear that the Legislative Yuan passed a bill to give everyone NT$10,000 [US$340]?” I said, pointing to a newspaper headline. The old man cursed, then said: “Yeah, the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] canceled the NT$100 billion subsidy for Taiwan Power Co and announced they would give everyone NT$10,000 instead. “Nice. Now they are saying that if electricity prices go up, we can just use that cash to pay for it,” he said. “I have no time for drivel like
Young supporters of former Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) were detained for posting the names and photographs of judges and prosecutors believed to be overseeing the Core Pacific City redevelopment corruption case. The supporters should be held responsible for their actions. As for Ko’s successor, TPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), he should reflect on whether his own comments are provocative and whether his statements might be misunderstood. Huang needs to apologize to the public and the judiciary. In the article, “Why does sorry seem to be the hardest word?” the late political commentator Nan Fang Shuo (南方朔) wrote
Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) reportedly told the EU’s top diplomat that China does not want Russia to lose in Ukraine, because the US could shift its focus to countering Beijing. Wang made the comment while meeting with EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas on July 2 at the 13th China-EU High-Level Strategic Dialogue in Brussels, the South China Morning Post and CNN reported. Although contrary to China’s claim of neutrality in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, such a frank remark suggests Beijing might prefer a protracted war to keep the US from focusing on
RSS